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of my respect at all times, and of my real friendship, whenever he shall think fit to know me for what

I am.

ence.

For all that passed betwixt Dr. Swift and me, you know the whole (without reserve) of our correspondThe engagements I had to him were such as the actual services he had done me in relation to the subscription for Homer, obliged me to. I must have leave to be grateful to him, and to any one who serves me, let him be never so obnoxious to any party: nor did the Tory-party ever put me to the hardship of asking this leave, which is the greatest obligation I owe to it; and I expect no greater from the Whig-party than the same liberty. A curse on the word Party, which I have been forced to use so often in this period! I wish the present reign9 may put an end to the distinction, that there may be no other for the future than that of Honest and Knave, Fool and Man of sense; these two sorts must always be enemies; but for the rest may all people do as you and I, believe what they please, and be friends.

I am, etc.

clined it; and I really believe he would have done well to have declined it now: such a post as that, and such a wife as the Countess, do not seem to be, in prudence, eligible for a man that is asthmatic; and we may see the day when he will be glad to resign them both. It is well that he laid aside the thoughts of the voluminous Dictionary, of which I have heard you, or somebody else, frequently make mention.-Constantinople, 1717."

• Unfortunately it did not put an end to party-distinctions ; but by proscribing the Tories, heightened and continued the animosity of both parties.

VOL. VII.

MY LORD,

LETTER XXIV.

TO THE EARL OF HALIFAX.

December 1, 1714.

I AM obliged to you both for the favours you have done me, and for those you intend me. I distrust neither your will nor your memory, when it is to do good: and if ever I become troublesome or solicitous, it must not be out of expectation, but out of gratitude. Your Lordship may either cause me to live agreeably in the town, or contentedly in the country, which is really all the difference I set between an easy fortune and a small one. It is indeed a high strain of generosity in you, to think of making me easy all my life, only because I have been so happy as to divert you some few hours: but if I may have leave to add, it is because you think me no enemy to my native country, there will appear a better reason; for I'must of consequence be very much (as I sincerely am)

Yours, etc.

LETTER XXV1.

DR. PARNELLE TO MR. POPE2.

your

I AM writing to you a long letter, but all the tediousness I feel in it is, that it makes me during the time think more intently of my being far from you. I fancy, if I were with you, I could remove some of the uneasiness which you may have felt from the opposition of the world, and which you should be ashamed to feel, since it is but the testimony which one part of it gives you, that merit is unquestionable. What would you have otherwise, from ignorance, envy, or those tempers which vie with you in your own way? I know this in mankind, that when our ambition is unable to attain its end, it is not only wearied, but exasperated too at the vanity of its labours; then we speak ill of happier studies, and sighing, condemn the excellence which we find above our reach.

1

My Zoilus, which you used to write about, I

This, and the three Extracts following, concerning the Translation of the first Iliad, set on foot by Mr. Addison, Mr. Pope has omitted in his first Edition. P.

"When Pope published Parnelle's charming translation of the Pervigilium Veneris, which certainly was not written by Catullus, but is of a later date, he did not print the Latin verses as if they were Trochaics. It were to be wished we had as good a translation of that noble and spirited poem, so singular in its kind, the Atys, the numbers of which are so expressive of distraction and enthusiam.

3 Printed for B. Lintot, 1715, 8°, and afterward added to the last edition of his poems. P.

• Parnelle assisted Pope by giving him the Essay on Homer's

finished last spring, and left in town.

I waited till

I came up to send it to you, but not arriving here before your book was out, imagined it a lost piece of labour. If you will still have it, you need only write me word.

I have here seen the First Book of Homer", which came out at a time when it could not but appear as a kind of setting up against you. My opinion is, that you may, if you please, give them thanks who writ it. Neither the numbers nor the spirit have an equal mastery with yours; but what surprizes me more is, that, a scholar being concerned, there should happen to be some mistakes in the author's sense; such as putting the light of Pallas's eyes into the eyes of Achilles, making the taunt of Achilles to Agamemnon (that he should have spoils when Troy should be taken) to be a cool and serious proposal; the translating what you call Ablution by the word Offals, and so leaving water out of the rite of lustration, etc. but you must have taken notice of all this before. I write not to inform you, but to shew I always have you at heart.

I am, etc.

Life; in which, though there appears a good deal of research and ancient learning, yet it is delivered in so uncouth and harsh a style, even after it was repeatedly corrected and altered, that Pope always continued much dissatisfied with it.

* Written by Mr. Addison, and published in the name of Mr. Tickell.

P.

EXTRACT from a LETTER of the Rev. Dr. BERKELEY, Dean of Londonderry.

July 7, 1715.

-Some days ago, three or four gentlemen and myself, exerting that right which all readers pretend to over authors, sate in judgment upon the two new Translations of the first Iliad. Without partiality to my countrymen, I assure you, they all gave the preference where it was due; being unanimously of opinion, that yours was equally just to the sense with Mr.'s, and without comparison more easy, more poetical, and more sublime. But I will say no more on such a thread-bare subject, as your late performance is at this time.

I am, etc.

EXTRACT from a LETTER of Mr. GAY to Mr. POPE.

-I have just set down Sir Samuel

Opera. He bid me tell you, that

July 8, 1715.

Garth at the

every body is

pleased with your translation, but a few at Button's : and that Sir Richard Steele told him, that Mr. Addison said the other translation was the best that ever was in any language. He treated me with extreme

• Sir Richard Steele afterward, in his preface to an Edition of the Drummer, a Comedy by Mr. Addison, shews it to be his opinion that "Mr. Addison himself was the person who translated this book."

P.

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